Engineers use hot water to drill two kilometre hole in Antarctic ice

The so-called BEAMISH project (Basal conditions on Rutford Ice Stream: Bed Access, Monitoring and Ice Sheet History) has been 20 years in the planning and was attempted in 2004 without success.

The 11-person team, which includes experts from the Universities of Swansea, UCL, Bristol and Aberystwyth, and NASA-JPL - broke through to the sediment 2152 metres below the surface on Tuesday 8 January after a 63-hour long drilling operation.

The drilling system used by BAS – which is the world leader in hot water drilling technology - used a petrol-fuelled generator and water-heaters powered by aviation fuel to heat the drill water to around 90 °C. High-pressure pumps were then used to push the hot water down the drill hose. A string of instruments was then fed through the borehole which will record water pressure, ice temperature and deformation within the ice around it.

Dr Keith Makinson, a physical oceanographer at BAS, said that the study will improve understanding and predictions of future sea-level rises:  “We know that warmer ocean waters are eroding many of West Antarctica’s glaciers,” he said. “What we’re trying to understand is how slippery the sediment underneath these glaciers is, and therefore how quickly they might flow off the continent into the sea. This will help us determine future sea level rise from West Antarctica with more certainty.”